Earlier on FishbowlDC: "NPR HQ Purchased"

NPR officially announced the sale of its Massachusetts Ave. property to Boston Properties, Inc (first reported by the Washington Business Journal).

Full release after the jump...

continued...

Today marks the tenth anniversary of Kojo Nnamdi's time on the airwaves at WAMU. Expect much celebrating on his show today.

FishbowlDC has obtained an internal NPR memo, which reveals that "NPR has reached an agreement with CBS Entertainment to create a television pilot based on Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!"

After the jump...

continued...

We're way out in St. Paul but a reader tells us that NPR HQ in DC has been evacuated. "No smoke, but evacuation. Trucks blocking Mass. Ave. Peter Overby
loitering on the corner by the Carnegie library..."

From an internal NPR staff announcement, obtained by FishbowlDC:

We are pleased to announce the first step toward achieving a significant new collaboration in public broadcasting. Today, PRI, Public Interactive (PI), and NPR signed an agreement for NPR to acquire the assets of Public Interactive, the Boston-based nonprofit organization founded by PRI that has played an instrumental role in the development and expansion of websites and digital services for 170 public broadcasting customers. This acquisition lays the groundwork for a digital distribution infrastructure to serve stations, producers, networks, and their partners in the communities we serve. At the completion of the acquisition in late August, PI will become part of NPR, and PI's 20 staff members will become NPR employees. The new unit will be led by Debra May Hughes, the current President and COO of Public Interactive, and will be guided by an NPR Board-appointed committee similar to that which guides today’s Public Radio Satellite System (PRSS).

Merging the assets of PI with NPR enlarges the scale and scope of digital services for the benefit of all public radio constituents. It aligns resources, expertise, and station relationships to grow stations' websites and digital services to make public media a more powerful presence online. This goal is central to NPR's digital strategy, which emerged from the New Realities planning process, is reflected in the 2006 Blueprint for Growth, and is approved by the NPR Board. The exploratory work of public radio’s Digital Distribution Consortium and previous efforts such as the Public Service Publisher Initiative identified the needs for a collaborative system for public media web content exchange that would mirror what today’s PRSS does for broadcast content.

Read the rest after the jump...

continued...

Newsweek's TamCam talks to radio bigshot Joe Madison at the recent Race & Reconciliation Conference put together by Janet Langhart Cohen and former Senator Bill Cohen. Madison says that the network news anchors had to go overseas to interview Barack Obama because they have no overseas bureaus anymore (and then he warns the Obama team that those same networks showering coverage on him will eventually tear him down).

Watch the video here.

NPR's Bryant Park Project was canceled recently and its last show is tomorrow. The staff has been Twittering over the past few weeks and, man, are they depressing. Join us after the jump to see the slow, but steady, decline of staff morale.

continued...

NPR staff are deeply mourning the loss of Gary Smith, whose official title was Services Coordinator for Facilities but, as a staff note suggested, "was perhaps NPR's finest ambassador."

Gary had been battling health problems for the past few months and passed away unexpectedly this week; NPR is holding a private memorial service for him today.

Gary was in charge of the NPR front desk since 2003 and anyone who passed through the 635 Mass Ave lobby for an on-air interview, meeting, public tour or other purpose knew him, enjoyed his huge smile and undoubtedly struck up a conversation with him.

NPR staff has been posting remembrances on the news organization's intranet and we'll share some with you after the jump...

continued...

Say hello to WTOP's Bob Madigan.

What word do you routinely misspell? seperate (there I go again)

What's the name of your cell phone ring? vibrate

What time did you get up this morning? 8 am

When did you last cry and why? a few days ago, grief

How many emails do you receive a day, roughly? 200 and most are NOT spam

What's your favorite letter? S

Read the rest when you click below...(and see previous FishbowlDC interviews: Julie Mason, David Shuster, Joe Curl, Alex Pareene, Peter Beinart, Jonah Goldberg, Megyn Kendall, Ana Marie Cox, Jim Brady, Howard Mortman, Amy Argetsinger, Jose Antonio Vargas, Chuck Todd, Tom Gottlieb, Kelly Ann Collins, David von Drehle, David Lat, Mark Leibovich, Zain Verjee, David Plotz, Paul Kane, Karen Travers, Mark Halperin, Hugo Gurdon, Greg Kelly,Ken Rudin, John Dickerson, Anne Schroeder, Spencer Ackerman, Bret Baier, Bob Sellers, Greta van Susteren, Danielle Jones, Jonathan Salant, John McCalla, Pam Hess, Ryan Grim, Marc Ambinder, Marty Kady, Jack Shafer, Annie Lou Bayly, Jerry Zremski, Charlie Cook, Dave Hughes, Howard Fineman, Katie Tarbox, Mark Segraves, Chris Cillizza, Tom Sietsema, Bill Triplett, Robin Givhan, David Brody, Norah O'Donnell, Carl Cannon, Jordan Lieberman, David Folkenflik, Molly Henneberg, Ernesto Londono, Brody Mullins, Aaron Blake, Martha Raddatz, Andrew Sullivan, Christina Bellantoni, Shane Harris, Nora McAlvanah, Adam Nagourney, Erin McPike, Mike Memoli, Ju-Don Marshall Roberts, Arthur Delaney, Chris Mincher, Rachel Sklar, Laura Sullivan, Jeff Kosseff, Matthew Cooper, Scott McCrary, Dan Reilly, Jennifer Griffin, Ari Shapiro, Jonathan Kaplan, Rick Klein, Mike Allen, Olivier Knox, Erik Wemple, Nathan Burchfiel, Andrea Mitchell, Mike DeBonis, Anne Kornblut, April Ryan, Amy Morris, Keith Koffler, Mark Silva, Ann Compton, Mark Knoller, Betsy Fischer, Katherine O'Hearn, Pamela Brown, Beverly Kirk, Wendell Goler, Glenn Kessler, Susan Page, Michael Crowley, Claudia Milne, Kelly Dinardo, Bruce Becker, Michael Rogers, Paul Schur, Diana West, Eric Nuzum, Bill Adair, Jonathan Ward, Jennifer Sergent, Jeffrey Goldberg, Ken Silverstein, Dana Milbank, Mark Murray, Katherine Lewis, Joe Mathieu, Chrystia Freeland, Sam Youngman, Christopher Dorobek, Greg Mitchell, Candy Crowley, Steve Chaggaris, James Pindell, Linda Kramer, Reid Wilson, Jay Newton-Small, Dan Steinberg Susan Ferrechio, Matt Labash, Gene Weingarten, Ron Allen, Kimberly Dozier, Perry Bacon, Jim Mills, Erin Hartigan, Lindsay Applebaum)

Also, drop us a line to let us know who else you'd like FishbowlDC to interview. They must work in the Washington area and you must include their email address.

continued...

You may have noticed the full page ad in Wednesday's Politico, touting "IMUS IS BACK!" (The I-Man is now on 105.9 from 6-9 AM).

The ad boasts of Imus' guest list, which "says it all."

So, in case you're wondering who's embraced Imus again since his "nappy headed ho" controversy, here's who the show itself is bragging about...(including, oddly, Tim Russert...)

Join us after the jump...

continued...